OPINION
Forty-two years ago, my first human rights trip as a congressman was to the Soviet Union to defend Jews against pernicious antisemitism.
I never thought, however, that the antisemitic hate I saw in Moscow and Leningrad could ever happen here.
But it has. It’s here. And it’s escalating.
In our own state, antisemitic pro-Hamas protesters at Rutgers University were effectively rewarded for disrupting finals for over 1,000 students when University officials agreed to eight of their ten demands—and opened the door to the other two.
Included among their most egregious demands, the pro-Hamas protesters ordered Rutgers:
• to divest from any business supporting what they foolishly and erroneously call “the state of Israel’s settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide.”
• terminate its partnership with Tel Aviv University;
• give out scholarships to Gazan students with NJ taxpayer’s funding;
• release a statement from the Office of the President acknowledging “the ongoing genocide against Palestinians.”
• to develop training sessions on anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim racism for all RU administrators & staff.
• ensure that no member of the Rutgers–New Brunswick community-including faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students, or alumni-found to have been involved in the encampment or related activity will face retaliation from the University, including
termination of employment or reduction in compensation.
After visiting Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus on May 4th to view the protesters’ encampment—and arguing with two obnoxious pro-Hamas protestors who compared Israel to Nazi Germany—I subsequently discussed my deep concerns with Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway.
I hope that when he testifies on May 23rd before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, President Holloway will repudiate the gross antisemitism of the pro-Hamas protestors and tell us what concrete steps are being implemented to protect Jewish students and faculty.
A March letter from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce informing Rutgers of a congressional investigation stated that “Rutgers stands out for the intensity and pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses.”
The letter noted, for example, that “Rutgers-Newark’s Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) has become notorious as a hotbed of radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity.”
Led by a director who has made virulently antisemitic public statements, the CSRR regularly features programming that includes speakers who unabashedly support terrorism.
One speaker referred to terrorists as “martyrs” practicing “armed resistance.” Another was “astounded” at the “awesome” mass murder of innocent Israeli civilians on October 7th. One had even been convicted of providing material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Sadly, these are just a few examples. There are reliable reports of many such grotesque and shocking incidents at Rutgers.
To make matters worse, Rutgers funds a group called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which regularly engages in antisemitic harassment and disruption—including but not limited to shouting slurs, spitting, throwing objects at Jewish students, and public antisemitic chanting and singing.
SJP has occupied buildings and has disrupted classes, programs and meals. The group also posted a video of masked individuals threatening Jewish students on campus with “Intifada Revolution.”
Make no mistake: Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization that commits mass murder of Jews and seeks the evisceration of Israel.
Don’t believe it? Remember the horrific violence of October 7th and the ongoing ordeal of the hostages. Or just read the Hamas Charter of 1988, the blueprint for genocide against the Jews—a modern-day Nazi-like final solution.
In the past year alone, I have chaired three congressional hearings on Hamas and its murderous antisemitism, which has completely corrupted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). UNRWA radicalizes Palestinian children with seething antisemitic hate—it is a child soldier factory!
Hamas is particularly focused on recruiting young people and on teaching them to hate. Through its control of education, youth summer camps, textbooks, and radio programming in Gaza, Hamas is able to target and shape the minds of children.
(As reported by the NJ Globe, The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed my bill to prohibit all U.S. humanitarian from being sent to UNRWA. Instead, the assistance would be required to flow through non-antisemitic organizations.)
Now we see this same antisemitic hate exploding across our own college campuses.
This bigotry, intolerance, and prejudice against Jews has absolutely no place in our country. Now more than ever, Rutgers must step up and commit to combating the antisemitic threats that have been escalating against Jewish students.
Rep. Christopher Smith is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.